Cinema 4D R19 Modern Exterior Architecture

Take a typical CAD file (dwg, iges, fbx, dxf etc) from Autocad, Vectorworks or similar, and use Cinema 4D to apply high quality lights, materials and rendering for a beautiful image.

What is covered

Spread over a dozen videos, this 6 hour collection takes you all the way from starting with a basic CAD file with crummy materials, harsh lights and bare surroundings; to rendering out a beautiful image, all from within Cinema 4D using either the standard or physical render engines. This tutorial series is compatible with Cinema 4D R16 and above and is recorded with R19.

Starting with the CAD file, we show you first of all how to clean up the imported file, strip out wasted materials and layers, then begin the process of replacing them with high quality realistic materials from scratch. Once the material are sorted we turn our eye to the lighting in the scene. Advanced methods of creating a sunlight are shown which give better results than C4D's standard sun options. Next we start to work in some better render settings, these will allow for both a much more realistic image and also show you rendered results faster to you can quickly make informed decisions about how to proceed.

After the basics are in place, we begin to populate the scene using 3D objects from C4D's content browser and various other resources to give a more immersive result. Lastly we export the rendered image from Cinema and take it into Photoshop for some simple yet effective adjustments to the colour, brightness, contrast, and lens imperfections.

This tutorial requires a minimum of Cinema 4D R16, preferably the visualisation or studio editions, although you will still be able to follow through most of the lessons with any edition of Cinema 4D. This package includes full permenant downloads of the tutorials in .mp4 format, these are compatible with all computers, tablets and phones. Starting and final scene files are also included.

Modeling

This tutorial series includes virtually no modelling, instead it concentrates on the realistic scenario of importing a pre-existing CAD file. Modelling is limited to repairing poor model topology and creating basic items.

Materials

This makes up a significant portion of this product, around 2 hours are dedicated to making realistic and fast rendering material finishes.

Lighting

Rendering

Rendering is mostly performed with Cinema 4D’s built-in Physical render engine, although Standard can be used. Render times for the final image are around 10 minutes (1920 x 1080, computer with a 1600 Cinebench score. ie. an average modern 8-core computer).